How it came to this

[DenTyler]

I‘ve been thinking about this over the last few days and especially now with the international break and the loss to Liverpool.

I was thinking back to the FA cup winning team. That moment when everything came together. What a team that was and it seems like such a long time ago. It made me wonder how you go from that moment when the future looked bright to now where we sit rock bottom of the league in a dreadful state.

How does that happen? I realise its small little mistakes and decisions one after the other. It is not one big thing as such.

First was losing Dougie. No matter what people think, the set up with him worked more than it failed.

The major players leaving. MG, ML, Eze, Munoz.

The Manager turning into a complete self centred c*** and leaving.

2 of the best players that remained wanting out and one pretty much on strike.

A risk taken on trying to keep the project going with the appointment of an attacking manager but giving him none of the tools required to do what he was brought in to do.

The management above the manager trying to do things on the cheap and treating every transfer market like a Bedouin flea market instead of just getting business done.

This is what has got us here. We are at a tipping point. There are plenty of points to be had. Yesterday showed that with some better organisation there is a team there. We have some decent players. BUT the next couple of weeks will define our season and decide if we go down or not.

Keep Sage to save the fee of sacking him or hoping he turns it around is about as risky as it gets. By the time we can get help in at the back, I feel it would be too late. Appoint the wrong replacement and we are f***ed. I read about a couple of names with no experience… f*** that.

What Parish has got right in the past is appointing the correct fire fighter when needed at the exact right time to stabilise. I said this a few weeks ago. It wont be pretty but it’s what is required. Nobody wants to watch RoyBall. But I want to watch Palace at Millwall even less.

I really worry that we have made too many small decisions and are on a road to relegation which is so hard to take being where we looked to be going just a year and a half ago. It just shows what a house of cards most clubs of our size are. You would have hoped after 14 years we were more established than this but I guess not.

 

[park the bus]

What Parish has got right in the past is appointing the correct fire fighter when needed at the exact right time to stabilise. I said this a few weeks ago. It wont be pretty but it’s what is required. Nobody wants to watch RoyBall. But I want to watch Palace at Millwall even less.

I really worry that we have made too many small decisions and are on a road to relegation which is so hard to take being where we looked to be going just a year and a half ago. It just shows what a house of cards most clubs of our size are. You would have hoped after 14 years we were more established than this but I guess not.

Palace are a side set up to avoid relegation. Parish has stated in one of his podcasts that the Premiership is where it's at. Hence the fire fighter appointments. Most seasons had a moment of anxiety with a poor run but we ended up below mid table, around 12th to 14th. In all that time we never really pushed on, one season was like the next. And then we won a string of games which culminated in a cup victory. Suddenly everyone thought we are good side, capable of the next step. The window of opportunity opened briefly, Parish, for whatever reason, missed it. The previous manager remarked upon it. He announced his departure. Results worsened. Incrementally things dropped off, not so noticeable at first but the trickle has become a flood.
Complacency from Parish and the board, taking the eye off the ball, thinking that we had made the breakthrough, poor acquisitions in the marketplace. The loss of Freedman and his footballing acumen.
These things happened in real time and all the signs were there. Question is, can Parish do the Harry Houdini trick one more time?

 

[Rogers 11]

I think people forget how awful we were in the league last year. Only three home wins as far as I rrecall. Yes, we were amazing in the cup competitions, but struggled and ended up low down in the PL. We gave Glasner a chance when he had better players at his disposal. I still believe Sage will turn things round, and cannot see another manager getting more out of this squad. We played pretty well yesterday, anf the scoreline certainly didn't reflect our overall performane. Maybe a change of formation would help, with a back four and two up front. It would certainly suit Nketiah.

 

[cROYdonrogers]

Nice reflective post. Unfortunately sometimes things in life come to an end and I'm sensing this might be our time.
The position can be salvaged but it need Mr Sage gone by midday latest. The replacement is of course crucial but the choice needs to factor in the possibility of relegation and who would be best placed to bring us back up. In making that choice obviously you need to maximise our chances of survival. So of the frontrunners is it Dyche or Frank? I wouldn't want that call. If I were SP I'd be taking Roy out for lunch for a chat - not to appoint him, but get his views.
Yes indeed how did it come to this!

 

[park the bus]

Nice reflective post. Unfortunately sometimes things in life come to an end and I'm sensing this might be our time.
The position can be salvaged but it need Mr Sage gone by midday latest. The replacement is of course crucial but the choice needs to factor in the possibility of relegation and who would be best placed to bring us back up. In making that choice obviously you need to maximise our chances of survival. So of the frontrunners is it Dyche or Frank? I wouldn't want that call. If I were SP I'd be taking Roy out for lunch for a chat - not to appoint him, but get his views.
Yes indeed how did it come to this!

We've gone full circle. The very average side that Pulis inherited to the side Sage (or the next person) has to play with. Thing is, Sage is no Pulis. Can the next person be?

 

[Username]

The Manager turning into a complete self centred c*** and leaving.

He didn’t turn into anything. He was always self-centred. That’s what we were warned about, and he was already twerking for Bayern when he turned down our contract offer two months before winning the FA Cup.

A risk taken on trying to keep the project going with the appointment of an attacking manager but giving him none of the tools required to do what he was brought in to do.

I don’t think this is entirely true, we brought in an attacking manager and gave him attacking players? Whether they’ve been available is a different matter, but this squad should be more than capable going forward with a core of Pino, Sarr, Mateta, JSL to choose from, plus then a promising Osorio and Nketiah as backups with Kamada also playing well in the 10 role.

The management above the manager trying to do things on the cheap and treating every transfer market like a Bedouin flea market instead of just getting business done.

This narrative seems pretty tired. Whether we’ve spent the money on the right players is a different question, but we can’t pretend like we haven’t spent money on JSL, Johnson (and by proxy McNeil), Pino, Canvot, Osorio (pushed to next summer) and were ready to spend on the other CB before the injury issue.

 

[Palacesince64]

A fair summary. I do think the rot started with Dougie leaving. Our championship gems were always going to move on to bigger things. We needed to keep doing what we were good at but instead we started spending on more established and expensive players who haven’t taken us to “the next level” as Parish calls it.

Hobbs has to take much of the blame for that but Glasner is culpable too. His tantrum led to a panic spend in January from which we’ve never recovered financially. Winning the Conference League was great but came at the expense of our league form and if you take away Europe, last season was poor. Knocked out of the cup by Macclesfield and 15th in the league above 2 awful teams who were sacking managers on a weekly basis. Our squad needed a refresh but without the money to do so we were in the bargain basement.

The single biggest mistake in the summer wasn’t appointing an inexperienced manager in the hope he would be Glasner Mk2, it was selling our best centre back while failing to replace him. Yes it was unfortunate that the guy we wanted had a dodgy foot, but that fact was known and to let Lacroix go before ensuring he could be replaced was a mistake from which we have yet to recover.
We won’t win the Europa League or the Carabao cup or FA cup. Building a new stand won’t happen. Our single aim this season is now avoiding relegation. It’s a sad state of affairs this early in the season but we’re back where we were before the heady days of Olise, Eze, Guehi etc. The heady days are past.

 

[Lanzo-Ad]

I‘ve been thinking about this over the last few days and especially now with the international break and the loss to Liverpool.

I was thinking back to the FA cup winning team. That moment when everything came together. What a team that was and it seems like such a long time ago. It made me wonder how you go from that moment when the future looked bright to now where we sit rock bottom of the league in a dreadful state.

How does that happen? I realise its small little mistakes and decisions one after the other. It is not one big thing as such.

First was losing Dougie. No matter what people think, the set up with him worked more than it failed.

The major players leaving. MG, ML, Eze, Munoz.

The Manager turning into a complete self centred c*** and leaving.

2 of the best players that remained wanting out and one pretty much on strike.

A risk taken on trying to keep the project going with the appointment of an attacking manager but giving him none of the tools required to do what he was brought in to do.

The management above the manager trying to do things on the cheap and treating every transfer market like a Bedouin flea market instead of just getting business done.

This is what has got us here. We are at a tipping point. There are plenty of points to be had. Yesterday showed that with some better organisation there is a team there. We have some decent players. BUT the next couple of weeks will define our season and decide if we go down or not.

Keep Sage to save the fee of sacking him or hoping he turns it around is about as risky as it gets. By the time we can get help in at the back, I feel it would be too late. Appoint the wrong replacement and we are f***ed. I read about a couple of names with no experience… f*** that.

What Parish has got right in the past is appointing the correct fire fighter when needed at the exact right time to stabilise. I said this a few weeks ago. It wont be pretty but it’s what is required. Nobody wants to watch RoyBall. But I want to watch Palace at Millwall even less.

I really worry that we have made too many small decisions and are on a road to relegation which is so hard to take being where we looked to be going just a year and a half ago. It just shows what a house of cards most clubs of our size are. You would have hoped after 14 years we were more established than this but I guess not.

Good analysis, i think the losing of Freedman was massive, but i don't blame him for lining his pockets, but a massive miss

 

[johnny the eagle]

We can only look at the people who run this shambles, can't we?

 

[park the bus]

Freedman was a foundational pillar in the structure. He had history previously as player, manager, then DOF, with irreplaceable experience and knowledge of the club. His departure left a gaping hole that hasn't been filled.

 

[Painter]

We can only look at the people who run this shambles, can't we?

Or we could look at the coaching staff, who insist on playing to their system, rather than a system that suits the players at their disposal.

 

[johnny the eagle]

Or we could look at the coaching staff, who insist on playing to their system, rather than a system that suits the players at their disposal.

I thought the coaching staff were part of running the shambles. Adapting to what we have at our disposal seems a very good starting point.

 

[NEILLO]

How it came to this is a combination of things.

If we look at what's on the pitch first. Most of us agree that the overall quality of the squad has slightly improved. No reliance on the Esse's, Rak-Sakyi's etc. anymore. But the players that most would select as a starting eleven ? - much weaker overall than we've had for the last few years. So, in terms of a squad that theoretically can cope with the additional pressures of European football, some progress made.

However, the question has to be asked around whether these players are able to successfully implement the Managers preferred set up and tactics. And I think we now know the answer - a resounding '' no ''. Results and the Table don't lie. Palace are relegation certainties carrying on like this. Sage doesn't appear to have any flexibility in his approach. The same mistakes are made in every game.

But it's not restricted just to the managers tactics. It's the off the field events that have largely contributed to todays position. The malaise set in pre season last year. Having won the FA Cup and finished the season with a record points total, the then manager was very clear about what he needed to sustain and improve upon what had just been achieved. Instead that summer was spent fighting a losing battle with UEFA, the usual last minute transfer window chaos, and as we later learned, a disaffected Oliver Glasner. I'm not excusing or endorsing Glasners subsequent behaviour, but I did empathise with his frustration.

So last season became an odd one. The manager was effectively working his notice, as was the captain, Marc Guehi. Mateta wanted away ( and still does ). Good early season form kept us afloat in the league but of course we exited the FA Cup in a most embarrassing fashion. Despite some below par performances, ultimately we did well to win the Conference League.

A reset was required. That began by investing £85m on Strand Larsen and Brennan Johnson. We all know how that's turned out. Bringing in Sage was a bold move given his relative inexperience. That just hasn't worked. Failing to adequately replace Lacroix has been a big contributor in our defensive issues. The Johnson - McNeil ' swap ' effectively meant Palace paid £35m for a bang average player. A player that to be fair hasn't been used effectively and is little more than a squad player now. The squad has an unbalanced look about it to the extent you question the competence of the person responsible for recruitment.

Ultimately Sage will lose his job. I wanted him to succeed but he hasn't been set up for success off the pitch and he has been found badly wanting tactically. Hobbs should also go because he's a major contributor to all this. I fail to understand how Steve Parish can be satisfied with that mans performance.

And finally, a point I've already made. The Buck stops with the guy at the Top. If I was Johnson, Harris or Blitzer, I'd be closely questioning Parish's performance this last 18 months.

 

[Badger11]

All good things....

Frankly I am surprised we survived so long in the PL. There is a stat around that most clubs that get promoted get relegated within a few years so we have been one of the outliers.

It's our turn in the barrel. The problem is simply the business model is not sustainable. Buying cheap and then selling on has one major issue, what if the replacements aren't as good?

Southampton and others have found this out.

These days clubs can access metrics on targets even if they are in the academy. The days of finding an undiscovered player are long gone. I sometime think the only reason we sign good players is that the bigger clubs squads are full so they don't need them at that point. Or as we are finding out now they are not as good as we thought. Clubs with deep pockets can afford to say we are not desperate for that position so let Palace take the risk and we can always buy the player later.

Parish had done a great job of spinning the plates but this was bound to happen sooner or later. If we do go down I expect he will move aside.

This has been our most successful period, My dad finally got to see us win the FA cup before he died.

Supporting Palace for us old uns has always been a roller coaster. Last time we were in the Championship I told a friend I supported them through thick and thin. "I know all about the thin, what's this thick you are on about" 🙂

 

[WJK1960]

I don't understand this ongoing vilification of Glasner. He decided in October 2025 not to renew his contract, and informed Parish. Any subsequent buying decisions were not of his making, but of the Club. Brennan Johnson was bought on the 2nd January 2026. The so called 'hissy fit' was later in January. JSL would appear to have been a panic move with Mateta ready to leave in January. With Wolves almost certainly down at even that stage, JSL would have been a far cheaper buy at a later stage. I've said several times on here, we were fourth in early December. Then we suffered a number of injuries (Munoz, Wharton) and lack of availbility (Sarr) and we didn't have the squad to cope.
The main issue in my opinion is the quality of the replacements we have bought. Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford have done this much more successfully than us. So the main reason for our demise is our transfer decision making over the last 18 months.

 

[PatrickA]

The chemistry between Sage and the club is wrong.
It happens.
It's not even necessarily that Sage is a bad manager, or that Palace is badly run.

The real crime would be to continue with the experiment with 'fingers crossed' or 'hope in every SE25 postcode.'

We need to embark on a different path with first and foremost a manager who will fix the defence.
Conceding an average of even 1 goal a game would be far preferable than the 2.4 we are currently conceding which makes it very difficult to get any sort of result.

It may mean some 'ugly' football.
No more Pino trying backheels in our penalty area, Ahanor trying dragbacks in defence or Canvot trying to dribble past opponents in the defensive third of the pitch.
It may mean actually marking properly at set pieces, which is such an important aspect of Premier League football.
It will also need a group of players who win their duels around the pitch, and this has been alarmingly absent this season.

There's still plenty of points to play for, but first and foremost we have to get the basics right

 

[JHB]

Lots of reasons we are struggling. Poor recruitment being one. Why so many number tens in the summer but relaying on loans at centre back. Johnson our worst ever signing. JSL being average but I understand that one as we thought JPM was going.

Then Sage. Wrong appointment at the wrong time. Something has been off ever since he came in. Awful pre season performances, falling out with players early on. As early as September there were stories he was under pressure. Something hasn’t worked there behind the scenes and the results on the pitch speak for themselves.

We shouldn’t overlook the impact of playing in Europe. It was great to win the Conference League but the extra games have really hurt our Legaue form and the stricter financial rules mean we are at a disadvantage as well. We’ve seen this with other clubs and I think it is a big factor

 

[Username]

I don't understand this ongoing vilification of Glasner. He decided in October 2025 not to renew his contract, and informed Parish. Any subsequent buying decisions were not of his making, but of the Club. Brennan Johnson was bought on the 2nd January 2026. The so called 'hissy fit' was later in January. JSL would appear to have been a panic move with Mateta ready to leave in January. With Wolves almost certainly down at even that stage, JSL would have been a far cheaper buy at a later stage. I've said several times on here, we were fourth in early December. Then we suffered a number of injuries (Munoz, Wharton) and lack of availbility (Sarr) and we didn't have the squad to cope.
The main issue in my opinion is the quality of the replacements we have bought. Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford have done this much more successfully than us. So the main reason for our demise is our transfer decision making over the last 18 months.

Glasner was very happy to make demands without ever looking like he was going to commit to the club himself.

It’s one thing to demand that the club take a £30m loss by not selling Guehi, but when you haven’t got any stake in the long term that is a bit rich. It’s also pretty apparent that having a manager with an uncertain future makes it harder to attract players, and who knows, maybe if OG grows a pair and says ‘Yes, I’m staying’ then maybe the club has a chance of talking to Guehi again about re signing with a release clause.

He then threw the squad under the bus, and his whole tantrum at Sunderland was pathetic.

 

[NEILLO]

Glasner was very happy to make demands without ever looking like he was going to commit to the club himself.

It’s one thing to demand that the club take a £30m loss by not selling Guehi, but when you haven’t got any stake in the long term that is a bit rich. It’s also pretty apparent that having a manager with an uncertain future makes it harder to attract players, and who knows, maybe if OG grows a pair and says ‘Yes, I’m staying’ then maybe the club has a chance of talking to Guehi again about re signing with a release clause.

He then threw the squad under the bus, and his whole tantrum at Sunderland was pathetic.

My understanding of the Guehi - Glasner saga was that it was the timing that was the problem. So on the last day of the summer window it looked like Guehi was off to Liverpool with no replacement incoming. Then in January, when Guehi went to City, it was after Glasner had prepared his team for the Sunderland game, in which he had included Guehi - therefore a disruption to those preparations.

As i said earlier, I don't endorse Glasner's subsequent behaviour. But I think he's intelligent enough to understand the financials involved.

 

[eaglesdare]

All the previous teams outside the "top 6" who have won trophies have had their squads torn apart and look where they are now. It's now happened to us.